Monday, February 9, 2009

Queens Dr. Pleads Not Guilty In Ex Husbands Murder

A doctor suspected of arranging her ex-husband's killing entered a plea of not guilty Friday morning during her arraignment on murder and conspiracy charges.

Dr. Mazoltuv Borukhova was not granted bail, because the district attorney considered her a flight risk.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said 91 calls were exchanged between Borukhova and her alleged co-conspirator, Mikhail Mallayev, in the days leading up to the shooting. Both were indicted Friday.

Borukhova's attorney says all of the evidence is circumstantial, and all of the phone calls shed no light on the case.

"There are many reasons for those and you are going to hear about that in the courtroom but you are not going to hear any phone call that suggests there was anything illegitimate going on," said Stephen Scaring,her attorney.

Borukhova had been locked in a bitter battle with her ex-husband, orthodontist Daniel Malakov, over custody of their five-year old daughter when Malakov was shot.

He was gunned down in a Queens park back in October as he took the little girl to see her mother.

Kelly says that what Borukhova told detectives after the shooting did not add up.

"Borukhova told detectives that she didn't see or hear a thing when a gunman, standing a few feet away, shot Daniel at close range in the chest," said Kelly. "Her insistance that she didn't hear anything is what first led investigators to suspect her. Several witnesses, including a police officer two blocks away, heard the shots."

Earlier this morning, Borukhova's former father-in-law was there as she was taken from the 112th precinct in Forest Hills to the courthouse for her arraignment. He could be heard shouting "now you must die" as she was escorted into a police vehicle.

"I want to just tell her, don't lie to God, even God, because she's religious and she lies," said the victim’s father Khaiko Malakov. "Lying, lying, lying, lying. All is lying. They lie to God and everybody. I don't want it like this. It's no good. She have to now be stronger and tell truth."

Mallayev, Borukhova's uncle by marriage, was arrested in January and charged with killing Malakov, after police matched fingerprints on a homemade silencer to prints on file from when he jumped a subway turnstile in 1994. Police believe he was the gunman and that he was paid close to $20,000 to execute the killing.

Malakov's family has long suspected Borukhova of being involved in his death. She has repeatedly denied any involvement in the killing.

If convicted, she faces a life sentence without possibility of parole.